(CNN) - If the Rev. John DeBonville could preach a sermon to lift the souls of churchgoers across America, his message would be simple:

Stop dressing so tacky for church.

DeBonville has heard about the “come as you are” approach to dressing down for Sunday service, but he says the Sabbath is getting too sloppy.

When he scans the pews of churches, DeBonville sees rows of people dressed in their Sunday worst. They saunter into church in baggy shorts, flip-flop sandals, tennis shoes and grubby T-shirts. Some even slide into the pews carrying coffee in plastic foam containers as if they’re going to Starbucks.

“It’s like some people decided to stop mowing the lawn and then decided to come to church,” says DeBonville, rector at the Church of the Good Shepard in Massachusetts. “No one dresses up for church anymore.”

Church leaders like DeBonville have harrumphed about declining dress standards for Sunday service for years, while others say God only cares what’s in someone’s heart.

But which side is right? What does the Bible actually say about dressing properly for church? And does Jesus provide fashion advice anywhere? Wasn’t he a homeless, Galilean peasant who wore flip-flops?

The answers to these questions are not as easy as they may seem. The Bible sends mixed messages about the concept of wearing your Sunday best. And when pastors, parishioners and religious scholars were asked the same questions, they couldn’t agree, either.

Wearing ties on first dates

There was one point on which both sides did agree: People are dressing sloppier everywhere, not just church.

Or take a walk outside and you’ll be greeted by teenagers slouching around with their jeans sagging over the butt-cheeks.

Even corporate America isn’t immune. Casual Fridays has morphed into casual every day and even tech tycoons like Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg wear bland T-shirts during public presentations.

It’s a sharp departure from another era in America before the 1960s, when people wore suits, dresses and white gloves in public.

The Rev. Gerald Durley, a sharp-dressed civil rights activist in Atlanta, recalls taking his future wife, Muriel, on their first date. When he showed up at her house, her father opened the door, looked at him, and took him aside gravely, “Young man can I talk to you for a minute.”

Jennifer Fulwiler, who wrote an article for the National Catholic Register titled, “Why Don’t We Dress up Anymore,” says her great-grandfather would put on a coat and tie just to go grocery shopping.

The reasons why people stopped dressing up could fill a book. Yet Fulwiler offers one explanation that’s seldom mentioned – lack of gratitude.

Fulwiler’s revelation came one day as she watched scruffily dressed people board a plane. She flashed back to a black-and-white photo she had seen of her grandparents boarding a plane in the 1940s. Most of the passengers were dressed in suits and ties and dresses because air travel was such a privilege at the time.

“We dress up for what we’re grateful for,” she says. “We’re such a wealthy, spoiled culture that we feel like we have a right to fly on airplanes,” says Fulwiler, author of “Something Other than God,” which details her journey from atheism to Christianity.

Church is like air travel now – it’s no longer a big deal because people have lost their sense of awe before God, Fulwiler says.

Yet some of these same people who say it doesn’t matter how you dress for church would change their tune if they were invited to another event, Fulwiler says.

“If you had the opportunity to meet the Queen of England, you wouldn’t show up in at Windsor Castle wearing jeans and a T-shirt,” she says.

The church customer is always king

Shouldn’t people have that same reverential attitude when they show up at church to meet God, some ask? After all, doesn’t your dress reveal the importance you attach to an occasion?

That sentiment, however, is seen as hopelessly old school in many popular megachurches across America. Casual Fridays has morphed into casual Sundays.

And many of the popular megachurch pastors are middle-aged men who bound onto the stage each Sunday dressed in skinny jeans, untucked Banana Republic shirts, and backed by in-house Christian rock bands. They’ve perfected a “seeker-friendly” approach to church that gets rid of the old formal worship style with its stuffy dress codes.

But there’s a danger in making people too comfortable in their clothes on Sunday morning, says Constance M. Cherry, an international lecturer on worship and a hymn writer.

Some churches have embraced a business-oriented “the customer is always right” approach to worship that places individual comfort at the center of Sunday service, says Cherry, author of“Worship Architect: A Blueprint for Designing Culturally Relevant and Biblically Faithful Services.”

“Many young people and boomers judge the value of worship service based on personal satisfaction,” Cherry says. “If I get to wear flip-flops to Wal-Mart, then I get to wear flip-flops to church. If I get to carry coffee to work, I get to carry coffee to church. They’re being told that come as you are means that God wants you to be comfortable.”

What the Bible says

The Bible says that’s not true – people had to prepare themselves internally and externally for worship.

In the Old Testament, Jewish people didn’t just “come as they are” to the temple in Jerusalem. They had to undergo purification rituals and bathe in pools before they could enter the temple, says Cherry, who is also a professor of worship at Indiana Wesleyan University.

Both Old and New Testaments suggest that people should not approach God in a casual manner, Cherry says. Psalms 24 urges the faithful to “ascend the hill of the Lord …with clean hands and pure hearts.”

When Jesus taught in the synagogues, he also observed the rules and decorum of being in God’s house, Cherry says.

Cherry isn’t calling for a restoration of first-century cultural norms, such as women covering their hair in worship, or a rigid dress code. She says churches should meet people where they are, and make even the poorest person feel welcome.

She just says that preparation for worship should give less thought to people and more thought to the divine.

“There should be some sort of approach to God that will include certain steps to honor the God that is not our buddy but fully The Other,” she says.

Others back up Cherry’s call to keep the Sabbath special. Dressing up really makes a difference on Sunday, they say.

“It puts you in a different mindset,” says Tiffany Adams, a convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who grew up wearing jeans in church. “It actually sets the Sabbath apart from every other day.”

And there are still pockets of church culture where no one has to persuade people to look sharp on Sunday.

The African-American church is one such place. Many of its members still insist on dressing up on Sunday because of the historical struggles of blacks. Sunday morning was often the only time in the week that a black person could assert their dignity, says Durley, the Atlanta civil rights activist who also is a retired Baptist pastor.

“On Sunday morning, when you put on your tie, your shirt and put your palms together and slicked down your hair, you were no longer the hired help, you were a trustee, a deacon or you chaired this board and you dressed accordingly,” Durley says.

What would Jesus wear?

There are others, though, who say God cares more about the person’s soul than their style. No one wears a bracelet today asking, “What would Jesus wear.” Clothes just weren’t important to Jesus or the early church, they claim.

The early church was anti-hierarchical and adopted a “come as you are” approach to worship, welcoming outcasts and the disenfranchised who often couldn’t dress in fine clothes, says Carl Raschke, a religious studies professor at the University of Denver.

Raschke cites Mark 12:38, where Jesus mocks the fine clothes worn by the Pharisees, a group of elite Jewish religious leaders of his day.

Others cite James 2:2-4, where the writer of the New Testament book criticizes early Christians for discriminating against poor people visiting the church in dirty clothes and favoring the man “wearing a gold ring and fine clothes.”

“Adopting a dress code would not only be suicidal for American Christians who are swimming against the stream of casual secularism, it would be antithetical to what Christianity sees increasingly as its abiding mission – to reach those who are marginalized and ‘don’t fit in,’ ‘’ Raschke says.

“The casualness of Sunday church attire has gone too far,” says DeBonville, the pastor of the Massachusetts church. “It’s about respect and honoring God.”

When DeBonville looks across the scruffy fashion landscape of America, he sees only one profession that’s holding the line against tacky dress.

It’s not the preachers or priests, though. These people belong to another profession whose members aren’t exactly known for respect and honoring God.

“The last ones wearing shirt and ties are the politicians,” DeBonville says.

Easter is supposed to be about the renewal of hope, but when asked if the spread of sloppy Sabbath can get any worse, DeBonville sounds gloomy. Yoga pants in the pews, pajamas near the altar – will everyone soon start showing up at church dressed like “the Dude” in the film, “The Big Lebowski.”

Nothing would surprise DeBonville anymore.

“There’s growing casualness everywhere,” he says. “I don’t know if it can get much worse.”

soundoff(1,006 Responses)

Krista

I rather attend a church whose goal is to preach to people's hearts and not their suits and dresses. This article is totally ridiculous. I work at a church, full time, and most days I wear jeans – as does the bulk of our staff, including the lead pastor. It's Easter Sunday and I'll be wearing jeans to our outdoor Easter service. And I'm ok with that because my heart is seeing God.

April 20, 2014 at 9:04 am |

whippstippler7

"My heart is seeing God"

Oooh, that sounds very, very creepy. Sort of like a Pan's Labyrinth creepy – you know, with the thing with eyes in the palms of its hand. Now picture a heart with eyes! Ick! Would the eyes bulge out the heart beats? And would you need transparent skin and ribs and muscle so that the heart can see out of the body cavity?

Oh my goodness. The internet is full of trolls if you want to talk about creepy things!

April 22, 2014 at 1:54 am |

Ben Jackson

Who cares? If you're a person of faith whose minister tells you that your deity of choice cares whether or not you can afford/choose to wear dressy Sunday clothes, then perhaps you should explore a faith that cares about deeper spiritual matters more than how crisply pressed your dockers happen to be.

“We dress up for what we’re grateful for.” I disagree. You dress up for what you think is important. Obviously many Christians (and also some of the members of other religious communities) don't see their religion as something important and valuable.

sag...
I don't know about god but I used to get a gold star at Sunday School for attendance because my mother dragged the kids along every week. It wasn't until I was eleven that I told my dad, who never went, that I didn't want to go anymore that I escaped.

I was also a gold star Catholic, now I look back and feel that I was a good little robot. I have not come out fully as an atheist to my parents, although I think they suspect. I am still culturally a Catholic.

Sag, I see what you mean by robotic. Although not really funny because i affects people lives but I can see the humor of which your speaking. I attended Catholic services when I was an atheist, due to my former job of caregiving for someone. The alter boys defiantly appeared to be in a trance. Something isnt it. You left the church an atheist. I went in an atheist, left a believer. The pastor there was different, and i connected to the person of Christ. I left the Catholic church because it wasnt were I needed to be spiritually. That denomination, to me, is like being in prison. Hope this doesnt offend you, but I can see why alot of people are leaving. Religion is cruel.

It is not about The Creator taking attendance, but how a person feels about the event they are attending. As the article stated if they were to meet the Queen (or some other so-called important person) they would dress for the occasion. Many so-called religious people today don't care how they dress when they visit their place of worship because they don't view the Creator with reverence.

April 20, 2014 at 9:36 am |

gma85253

I agree with you, chiniquy, a well-dressed (in the manner of the day) person is showing SELF RESPECT. Go ahead, wear "grubby" clothes out in public. And I will judge you, as I personally don't care to include those who don't respect themselves in my circle. If I don't judge people, how will I know who to steer clear of? "Yeah, he is wearing a prison jumpsuit, but I'm sure he's a great guy..."

I've been guilty of that myself but not today – just arrived home from Mass and everyone looked presentable to my eyes – what I did notice was the large crowd – one tragedy after another in the news seems to have stirred people and made them realize God is not to be ignored – a Happy Easter to everyone here...

April 20, 2014 at 8:53 am |

whippstippler7

Sooo – ignoring god lead to the ferry disaster in South Korea? Wow – that's a nasty god you have there!

but why the large crowd today and not next week? a lot of fakers today I would guess

April 20, 2014 at 11:53 am |

whippstippler7

This is SO childish. Judging based on what a person wears. But then again, the entire concept of religion is childish: believing in make-believe stories. Why is it that children can give up their belief in Santa Claus and yet believers can't give up their belief in an even less probably mythological figure?

Ive never read a specific dress code in the new testament. It does say everything you do, do it unto the lord. If a person wants to dress well or not that is between them and God. We are to love the person and be concerned about their spiritual needs. Some people may be dealing with something and for them just showing up is most important for them. The clothes are not as important as the person. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Matthew 6:33

Yes in the old testament under the law there was ordinances like the one you mentioned. In the new testament it says that we are to dress modestly, but i was referring to specific dress code like dont wear flip flops, etc..But thank you for pointing that out.

our beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful. (NIV, 1 Peter 3:2-5)

sag...
TV Evangelist preachers, the successful ones, have a uniform, $2000 Armani suit, $250 shirt, $100 tie, $500 calf leather shoes; they are just trying to keep up with all those gold embroidered gowns worn by other religions.

sag...pancreatic is one of the more horrible forms...thoughts go out to you and him...

@ whip...Ian McEwan wrote an amazing piece in honor of Chris Hitchens in the NYTimes just after he died...he says something similar in his second paragraph:

"This [Oncology center] is one of the world’s great concentrations of medical expertise and technology. Its highest building denies the possibility of a benevolent god — a neon sign proclaims from its roof a cancer hospital for children. "

Easter Sunday. The culmination of the Christian belief that a being powerful enough to create the entire Universe and its billions of galaxies impregnated a Greco-Roman Jewish virgin with himself to give birth to himself and then sacrifice himself to himself to forgive the 'original sin" of a couple we now all know never existed.

So Sad......and what's with "WE"? Got a mouse in your pocket?
I believe, love and trust in Jesus. The bible is not wrong, we just misinterpret what it says.
I know that the only true happiness is to know and love Jesus.

Yes, I should have been more specific. By "we" I mean those who can understand fifth grade science.

April 20, 2014 at 8:44 am |

whippstippler7

@ kerry: of course we're just misinterpreting what the bible says! of course! if it says something that, read literally, is crazy, we're misinterpreting it. Like saying rabbits chew their cud, or bats are birds. NO, no, no – we're misinterpreting it. Silly Leviticus! Or when god in Samuel commands the slaughter of all of the men, women, children, BABIES, and farm animals. Again – silly misinterpretation.

Having been an Evangelical Christian for the first 3 decades of my life and a visitor now in their churches and homes, I am impressed at how miserable so many of them are despite their "outward" appearance and demand that their walk with God is the ultimate measure of "happiness."

Well thought post. Many agree with your thinking, as do I. In my opinion, most of the biblical stories are misinterpreted and misrepresented by the church. Many answers to people alienated by the church can be found in A Course in Miracles.

April 20, 2014 at 9:51 am |

Leigh Binder

Nothing like a little opium on Sunday, and really, does one need to get "dressed" for an outing of opium intake?
Get real, not only do you not need to go to church to find God but in the end it (In most cases) hinders the journey.

Get over it and really CNN, is the best you can do? Is there nothing else going on? Okay, lets play, its Easter, whats more important, what you wear or the message of resurrection (for me, more powerful then the crucifixion) and eternal life? But

Christians love their blood and guts, just ask Mel.

So yes, put some nice clothes on damit, and a fine bonnet, yell at the homeless guy on the street to "get a job" on your way to worship your guilt and dont forget to hide those eggs!

Yes, wasn't one of J's miracles at the wedding at Cana never ending eggs?
LMAO!!!

April 20, 2014 at 8:30 am |

gumbythecat

If god existed, he wouldn't care what you wear to church. those are petty human social concerns, and the fact that it seems to be such an important issue would indicate that churches are more about people than about god.

Churches, temples, mosques? Buildings where mostly men earn a living preaching a con from outdated singular books. Time to "pink slip" the preachers and convert the buildings to recreation facilities, parks or parking garages.

Ones relationship with GOD, is entirely between them and GOD.
I personally do not believe GOD cares what you're wearing when you worship him.
But I do believe that WE should care and show respect by our dress code.
If you know Jesus and have a relationship with Jesus, you can't but not love and honor him, for he truly loves us.

What would you expect from CNN really? Its a church not a night club and the God they follow just doesn't care about worldly stuff but the mind of the person inside them. Not that I'm a Christian but dressing should be clean and simple as far as going to church is concerned.

GIve it a break CNN. Go find a sad, lonely, disgruntled clergy person, press them on an issue and write the story. Sick and sad. See you in worship this morning. I will be the guy with flip flops, jeans and coffee, oh and the guy who is LOVED BY THE RISEN SAVIOR!

This is ridiculous! I have been a church organist for 30 years and I do see people dressing up all the time, but the churches I serve would never, ever turn someone away for not being dressed properly. I usually wear a suit (including jacket and tie) to church, and then slip into a robe to play the organ. Even so, that is what I am most comfortable with. What do I think if someone shows up to church dressed casually? At least they thought of God. By the way, the Episcopal Church I attend is a growing congregation with lots of young families and is very progressive. Happy Easter! Hallelujah!

April 20, 2014 at 8:17 am |

ausphor

ker....
Shake it up a bit this Easter Sunday, play Procol Harum's, A Whiter Shade of Pale. Thanks.

I was Catholic before I became an atheist. I studied the Catholic Bible, the history of the church, and its catechism. Upon visiting the Catholic Answers website, and see people argue about what kind of sins God hates most, and if you could wear shorts to church or not. These were the things that chipped away at my religiosity until I realized what a bunch of woo woo it all is.

April 20, 2014 at 8:17 am |

Woody

"When he scans the pews of churches, DeBonville sees rows of people dressed in their Sunday worst." – CNN article

Note the picture accompanying the article. I see rows and rows of empty pews. This seems to be typical in many parts of the country. This is the problem churches should be worried about, not what the believers are wearing. It seems as if the cash cow is dying.

One of my church memories is 3 ladies that sat in front of me once. For the entire mass, they talked about, or made fun of everyone else's clothes, gossiped about people they knew, and discussed where to go for brunch. This lasted the entire mass.

The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.